2014 State of the Network Study
Network Managers and Engineers Define SDN as "A Road Trip without a Map"
Network Professionals Sound Off on Software-Defined Networks, Unified Communications
Highlighted in the survey taken by 241 network professionals is continuing uncertainty surrounding the emerging Software-Defined Networks (SDN), which many network administrators view as a “road trip without a map.” While 12 percent of network managers and engineers regard SDN as critical, the rest seem divided as to whether it is important at all, with more than 80 percent of respondents viewing SDN as “unimportant” or just wanting to “ride out the hype.”
What’s trending? The results suggest network teams are investigating and adopting emerging technologies like SDN and 40 Gigabit (Gb) Ethernet networks on a limited basis, while technologies such as Unified Communications (UC) and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are approaching the threshold of mainstream adoption, tipping in at more than 50 percent implementation by year’s end.
Respondents were asked, via a third-party web portal, to answer a series of questions on the impact, challenges, and benefits of SDN, UC, Big Data and Application Performance Management. The results were based on responses by network engineers, IT directors, and CIOs from around the globe. Responses were collected from January 10, 2014 to March 7, 2014.
Study Highlights:
Application challenges: Eighty-three percent most challenged by identifying the source of app issues.
And video for all: Seventy percent to implement videoconferencing in the next year. A quarter expect video to consume half of all bandwidth in 12 months.
Apps move to cloud: Sixty percent anticipate half of their apps to run on the cloud over the next year.